Commentary: Even in tough times, God is the answer

Saturday

I get easily confused at times. It is especially frustrating when I can’t understand, but something tells me that I should.

I get easily confused at times. It is especially frustrating when I can’t understand, but something tells me that I should.

For several years I have had an ongoing discussion with a younger couple about the effects of the computer revolution on society: how it has changed our individual lives and how it has changed the way we express our faith.

On a recent Wednesday night we discussed the digital revolution and its impact on the music industry. As we spoke, my head was about to explode with thoughts because I couldn’t understand their point of view.

We came to an impasse when they said, “Steve, you really don’t understand what we are saying.” My immediate response was to get defensive, but inside I was thinking, “Maybe I don’t understand.”

In the providence of God I met up the next day with the husband and we resumed the discussion. We came to a mutual understanding of the big issues and acknowledged that we would agree to live with some uncertainty on other issues.

In the Gospel of John, there is the story of a man named Nicodemus who came to Jesus certain of what he believed, he left not so certain.

Jesus wanted to talk about a relationship with God and the work of the Spirit in individual lives.

Nicodemus wanted to talk about theology and science.

In the same way we get frustrated when someone doesn’t seem to understand us, Jesus must have been frustrated with Nicodemus.

Jesus tries to explain what it means to be “born again.”

But Nicodemus doesn’t get it. He thinks Jesus is talking about physical birth. Finally Jesus sums it up for Nicodemus: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3). In other words, Jesus told Nicodemus to look beyond logic, to make room for the spiritual.

For days now the world has been swept up in the tragedy of Japan. Of course the news media only waited two days to start asking who is responsible. These people need water, food and shelter and they need words of encouragement.

On Friday, a reporter was with a couple of survivors standing in the street, when he asked, “Where do you go from here?”

They do not know their future, any more than did Abraham when God invited him to start walking toward a land where he would be born again.

Nicodemus came to Jesus full of certainty, after his encounter he wasn’t so sure anymore… but he left knowing Jesus.

To be born again means that in the midst of the uncertainty of this world, God will fill us with the Spirit. God will take the nothingness that often comes with our uncertainty and create something new. The people of Japan look out and see nothingness and uncertainty; let us pray that they will see what can be and have faith to step forward in an uncertain world.

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